By Amber Williams

Getting kicked out of a bar has come to be a running joke — almost a badge of honor even — among my ornery, carousing friends. I’ll never forget my first time. I took advantage of a birthday deal being offered at a Clive bar — “where you want to be seen,” I believe was the slogan. I found myself enjoying a slightly competitive game of pool with my older brother in celebration of my 22nd birthday. It wasn’t long before we were “asked to leave.” They weren’t asking.

It turned out we were no longer welcome because a staff member noticed my brother was wearing a yellow bandana on his head.

“Only dirty druggies wear those,” was the bartender’s judgment.

I’ll never forget when my brother took the do-rag off his dome, held it up to the bar light over the pool table and said, “Does that look dirty to you?” We pealed out of that parking lot laughing and never looked back — that is, until it closed and re-opened as the Bombay Bicycle Club a couple years later. I found myself a regular there in no time.

Many BBC fans were a little concerned upon learning of yet another change of hands at the always-hopping Clive haunt now dubbed The Point.

“When we took ownership, a lot of people wondered what we were going to do with it,” said Fix Brown II. Some worried The Point would discontinue the BBC live music vibe, while others hoped they would bring back the old days, he said.

“We just kind of wanted to go our own direction with it,” Brown explained. “We have things coming up that will change the dynamic of live music here in Des Moines. We have plans to bring Des Moines back to the world.”

He reminisced over what he considers Iowa’s live music heyday of the 1990s. He should know. Brown has performed music in the metro since 1996 and now plays bass for Decoy. Decoy’s vocalist/guitarist Chris Ranallo, lead guitarist Micah Wagner and the trio’s good buddy, Doug Severidt, went in as partners on The Point venture earlier this year.

The owners plan to be a live music venue where “not just any band plays but only the higher quality acts (and with) absolutely the best sound system for a venue of this size in all of Iowa,” Brown promised. But despite all that, Brown says The Point is a “comfortable neighborhood bar” first, and a live music venue second.

“Like Hairy Marys was in the ’90s,” he said. “When I lived in the Drake area I was in there many, many times with the other regulars just there to drink and hang out, and the music was an afterthought. It was a Drake neighborhood bar first, and at the end of the day, it didn’t matter who was playing that night. It was just a bar to go where live music would be playing.”

So, no worries, brother. Bandana fashion is not just allowed at The Point; on some nights, it’s a certainty. CV